A teacher who claims her arm was broken by a garda in a Galway station could not have sustained the fracture before her arrest some time earlier, a doctor has told the High Court.
Michael O’Sullivan, an orthopaedic consultant at University Hospital Galway, made the comments on Wednesday at the hearing of Denise Callinan’s High Court action seeking damages arising from the alleged incident.
Callinan claims she “screamed out in agony” after a male garda allegedly twisted her arm until it broke at Millstreet Garda station following her arrest after an altercation with her brother near Eyre Square in Galway city centre in the early hours of October 19th, 2019.
Callinan (28), from Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim, sued the Garda Commissioner, seeking damages for the alleged assault at the station.
READ MORE
Her civil action opened before Judge Tony O’Connor and a jury this week.
At Wednesday’s hearing, O’Sullivan told the court that Callinan had attended him in June 2021 and told him she had had her arm broken following an assault at a Garda station.
He said the injury to Callinan was a spiral fracture, often caused by an arm being twisted.
He said the fracture in question, “like a spiral staircase”, had been sustained just above the elbow and stretched two-thirds of the way up Callinan’s middle arm.
He said the injury had healed well, and that treatment of such a fracture is routine and non-invasive. The consultant said that such a fracture is very painful.
Asked by Seamus Breen, counsel for Callinan, if an individual could carry on as normal after sustaining the injury, O’Sullivan replied: “No, you would have pain immediately, you’re going to need help.”
O’Sullivan agreed with barrister David McGrath, for the commissioner, that the injury could be caused by a person resisting while being restrained.
Asked by Breen if the injury could be sustained without serious resistance, he said: “Yes it can.”
Robert Holt, a microbiologist who had encountered Callinan and her brother Eoin on the night in question, agreed with McGrath that Callinan had been “quite hysterical” when arrested.
He added Callinan did not appear to be in physical discomfort when being taken away in a Garda van following her arrest.
Separately, the court heard that the consultant notes of a psychiatrist who treated Callinan for a psychotic episode in September 2020 made no reference to her alleged assault by gardaí the previous October.
Callinan had told the court that her eight-week hospital stay and diagnosis of psychosis had directly resulted from the alleged assault and her experience at the Galway Garda station in 2019.
“My mental health was in perfect condition prior to that incident,” she told McGrath.
McGrath said that according to Dr Natasya Nor’s notes, Callinan had never mentioned the trauma of the alleged assault, and had only spoken of her stress concerning ongoing solicitor’s fees stemming from her conviction for drunk and disorderly behaviour that night.
Callinan said the psychiatrist had “let [her] down” by not taking note of the effects of her assault, adding that she would “question the reliability of these notes”.
The trial continues.
